Use Your Head

by Tony Buzan

Are you worried that you're not achieving your full potential? A few years after this classic book on how to improve your brainpower was first published, a fairly average student announced that he intended to try for a place at Cambridge University. His chances were assessed as slim', since his grades were usually unexceptional. But with the help of Use Your Head, he went on to achieve four As at A-level, two starred firsts at Cambridge and a top job with a multi-national company. Since 1974, Use Your Head has been translated into over 27 languages, has been published in five continents and 100 countries, has sold well over a million copies and still the demand increases! Use Your Head *Teach you the vital skills of Learning How to Think and Learn. *Increase your creative thinking and problem-solving capacity *Enable you to make the best of your brain *Provide you with both the confidence and the means to fulfil your own mental potential

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Personal Development, Business, Reference, Brain

157 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Tony Buzan was an English author, educational consultant, and pioneer of the mind mapping technique, which he developed to enhance learning, creativity, and memory. Born in Middlesex in 1942, he studied psychology, English, mathematics, and science at the University of British Columbia and later became a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, where he served as the inaugural president of the student society. Buzan was a strong advocate for mental literacy and radiant thinking, drawing inspiration from figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein. He authored or co-authored over 80 books, including the bestselling Use Your Head, The Mind Map Book, and The Speed Reading Book, and gained international recognition through his 1970s BBC series Use Your Head. Buzan co-founded the World Memory Championships, the Mind Sports Olympiad, and the Brain Trust Charity. His legacy lives on through his books, seminars, and iMindMap software.

Reviews

[Heidi Wiechert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony Buzan teaches the reader strategies to utilize the infinite powers of your mind.

"I call it the 'operations manual' for your brain. It is designed to help you nurture your 'super-biocomputer' and unleash the natural and extraordinary range of mental skills that you possess. pg xii

I've read a lot of non-fiction books about what the potentials of the mind and positive thinking are. This book gives more than just information about what could be, it shares tools for expanding your creative skills and organizing what goes in and comes out of our mind.

"No man yet exists or has existed who has even approached using his full brain. We accept no limitations on the power of the brain — it is limitless." pg 24

Buzan shares the keys for maximizing your memory — imagination and association. By combining images with simple rhymes, he's created a surprisingly easy way to remember lists and, potentially, large sections of information.

I was intrigued by his method of organizing information and study materials with the use of "mind maps." Basically, you start with a topic and draw branches coming out from this main theme, that relate to the information in some way. Continue to branch out, using colors and shapes to stimulate your brain while drawing conscious connections between the ideas on the paper.

It's a fun little creative exercise, but also it helps you see associations you may not have considered before.

Personally, I do mounds of research on an almost daily basis and it helps to have a tool to organize the facts I come across. The mind map may be the most helpful tool in this book.

There's a lot of self help advice in these pages too. It's mainly common sense, but I found almost all of it useful as reminders of what is possible. For example, Buzan suggests considering your perspective before starting any program of study or problem solving.

"On average, people assume that there are theoretically infinite insoluble problems and only a relatively minor number of solutions. The fact is, every problem has a solution and there are no insoluble problems for a human brain that is properly trained, activated and aware of its creative functions." pg 82

After a bit of research on the author, it seems Buzan is quite popular in Great Britain and has been for some time. Perhaps it's time for the U.S. to jump on this train too.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did really like this book, I really liked all of his books. To be honest, and this is quite amusing now that I think about it, I can't remember what was in this book - but I'm going to guess. In a way this is my review of all of Buzan's books - at one time or another I've read them all and they are fun.

Positives: The main thing to learn from Buzan is mind-mapping. Look, I don't care if this doesn't really work or does really work or whatever else it may or may not do. I find that as soon as I turn a page to landscape and start drawing up a mindmap my brain works quite differently and this has to be a good thing. Also it helps me remember stuff. I ought to do these much more regularly, and will now I've reminded myself, but they really are wonderful things and should be taught to everyone - not just people who are 'visual' but everyone.

Negatives: Buzan has this wonderful way of helping you memorise a list of ten items in order - in one of his other books he teaches you to memorise hundreds of items in order. This is all well and good, but after learning this remarkably simple method, I realised just how rarely one is called on to memorise lists of items in order. You know, count on one hand over a decade! But his explanation of the Roman Room is wonderful and it is good to know these things exist and that you could use them - even if you don't.

It does suffer from the self-help book "this book will change your life" problem a little, but much better than your standard self-help book.

[Mai · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب بسيط جدا وسهل وسلس جدا
تزويدة بكمية الصور الى فية بيجعل استيعابة عملية بسيطة
ومعلوماته قيمة ومتناول اشياء كثيرة

[Sarezh kamla · Rating 4 out of 5]

USE Your HEAD - yes the book exactly describe this title .
Very good - practical - easy Book .
TONY BUZAN try to tell You in this book that your barin much better than you think and he prove that :).
things that would learn Here :
1- perfect Reading : occur following 7 steps
* recognition
* assimilation
* intra integration
* extra integration
* retention
* recall
* communication
2- Eye aid movement : amaziinnnnnng exercise :)
3- Recall - brain has highest capacity for recall from 10 min to half hour after learning time then it slow down after weeks nothing can be Recall if you have't Reviewed any .
and break during learning time give chance of better recalling after learning time . and breaks are useful as a relaxation points . they get rid of the muscular and mental tension which inevitably builds up during periods of concentration .

4- Review - Tony buzan has programmed pattern of Review very effective .
5- Noting and their way of associations and linking .
6 - Mind map for recall and creative thinking - learn how to make review and write note as Mind Map .
Finally very nice book i Liked their ideas and the way he expalin and sure i will Follow Tony BuZAN FROM OTHER Books .

[علي محمود الأحمد · Rating 5 out of 5]

إنه ليس مجرد كتاب يحوي موضوعاً او نقاشاً او فكراً بل هو أكثر من ذلك بكثير فهو الدليل الذي يوضح لنا كيفيفة عمل المنظومة العقلية المعقدة داخلنا وكيفية استثمارها بالشكل الأمثل للوصول إلى اقصى طاقاته للتغلب على كل مشكلات التعلم والتفكير والاستذكار والإبداع
فنحن نعلم أن عقولنا لها قدرات هائلة لكننا لا ندرك ذلك ولا نعمل على فهم استغلالها وكيفيته للوصول لاقصى طاقاتنا الابداعية والتنموية الذاتية
إن الكتاب هو اباية للانطلاق نحو الابداع والاستثمار بالذات
اقرأ وأدرك ماتملك ثم انطلق في الاستثمار في ذاتك

[Ahmed El-dressi · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب مهم ننصح أي حد يقراه

[The task of being Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This indeed is an owners manual on how to operate our own Super Bio computer. I devoured this book in record time, and can not wait to read everything else Tony has written. Improve you brain processing, cognition, memory, focus, recall using simple, yet effective techniques like mind mapping, described in this book. Every student should incorporate these methods in their learning process. Utilize both of your brain hemispheres, let your mind work as a whole for a change:)

[Ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can say this is the best book of Buzan
it is like a summary of all what he wrote about Studying skills & MindMaps

كتاب جيد يعتبر أفضل ما كتب بوزان
يلخص كافة أعماله الخاصة بطرق المذاكرة والخرائط الذهنية

[Nawar · Rating 3 out of 5]

قرأته منذ فترة .. و فيه بعض المعلومات المفيدة
و التي أحاول الاستفادة منها

[Fahima Jaffar · Rating 3 out of 5]

طلّقتُ أوهام التطوير الذاتي منذ زمن، لكنَّ هذا استثناء,

, واحدٌ من الكتب القليلة التي أدين لها,
خرائطه الذهنية أعانتني كثيراً في حفظ الغثّ والسمين من المناهج الجامعية :)

[Aneri · Rating 5 out of 5]

man atrodo šią knygą reikėtų perskaityti visiems, kas perduoda informaciją kitiems ir gal net nuo to pradėti mokykloje mokyti vaikus. Nesakau, kad visiems, bet ypatingai tiems, kas tik per vieną kanalą informaciją perduoda. Yra dar visokių kitokius būdų.

[Indrani Muniandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful book and would recommend it to students.

[Ahmed Hassan · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب حلو ومفيد

[Courtney Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book lent to me by my study mentor at university to help me with certain issues I've had with learning, hence I've read it even though Tony Buzan is male (I'm trying to read exclusively books by women this year). I've just increased my year reading goal to compensate and will do the same with similar books if necessary.

I came to this book as a person who struggles most with memory, hoping to gain some techniques to help my studies. I didn't quite get what I was after, but did find some useful tricks that will hopefully improve my learning and my attitude towards it in future.

The book covers how to read more quickly, simple memory tricks such as mnemonics, taking notes by using key "hook" words and phrases, mind mapping and the Organic Study Method. The choice of issues to focus on feels a little random. After learning Buzan's seven-step definition of "reading", I was expecting that the book would cover each in turn, but that wasn't the case. I would have preferred a book that was a little more structured, though perhaps that's my linear brain talking!

A lot of the information I'd heard or intuited before, such as using mnemonics effectively and elements of the Organic Study Method, but it was still useful to see it written down in a more structured way. Mind maps were a core part of my primary and secondary education, so the explanations of those were mostly revision. I think this book would have been a lot more helpful if I hadn't used them before.

However, I did learn a few new things. One of these was a method for taking notes in mind map format — using two pages concurrently, one for mind maps and one for the parts that need more space, such as graphs or derivations, and referring to those parts via numbers on the mind maps. I had never considered that technique before, assuming that mind mapping during lectures would be far too tricky, but I definitely will try it in future. I'd also known that it's best to recall whatever you're trying to learn at regular intervals after you first learn it, but didn't know the best timeline, which is another piece of information you can find in this book.

I have given the book three stars because it didn't revolutionise the way I learn, or at least it hasn't so far, and I found the content in general to be a bit lacking and disjointed, but it does have some interesting ideas and is an easy read.

[Alexander Ledovskiy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Эта книга даёт представления Тони Бьюзена по поводу радиантной образной природы мышления и применения его в жизни. Главный плюс книги, что все сказанное автором имеет обоснование. Т.е. слова, что использование его подходов позволяет сделать 2-ка отличником подтверждается несколькими примерами настоящих людей, а какие-то заявления о природе мозга подтверждается конкретными исследованиями конкретных ученых.
Эта книга достаточно короткая, поэтому тем кто не хочет тратить на это много времени понравится.
При этом там описаны интеллект карты, скорочтение, тренировка памяти, работа с литературой, запись лекций и многое другое.
Но на мой взгляд для изучения метода интеллект карт следует читать скажем http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80...

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the 1970's and used some of it in my career, though not all of it by any means.

In the half century which has passed I have sat through untold numbers of lectures and conferences where self-appointed experts re-hashed the material, pertending it was their own. On one occassion when a highly paid consultant got stuck in traffic and could not deliver his lecture - I got up out of the audience and did it instead, and so effectively that many participants thought I was part of an elaborate deception.
But, no! Tony Buzan's book has a unique place in the world of adult education. He may not have discovered how the brain works, but he was the first to apply it to a mainstream audience.

[Mohammed Almahfoudh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Arabic ediion of this book because it is the only edition available in my university library (KFUPM Main Library). This book is one of a series of books on mind, memory and related stuff. It covers the subject of brain and howit works in 11 chapters. It doesn't give intensive guidance on how to improve the use of brain. It just puts you on the rghit track. If you want more, read the rest of the book series.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't normally have chosen this type of book to read, but it was recommended to me by a work colleague, who thought it might help me with my studies. I found this book really interesting - giving advice on better ways to use your memory and recall skills.

[VC Gan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda disappointed reading this. Most of the techniques in this book can be found online - mind maps, speedread, flashcards, charts etc. It does elaborate on reading mindset and psychology in regards to understanding how the mind works in remembering stuff, however, I don't find it very helpful.

[فـي قبضتــه السحــاب !!؟ · Rating 3 out of 5]

دليلك في المذاكرة هنا .. يقترح أساليب تساعدك على تذكر ما تعلمت ورسم الخرائط الذهنية لها تسهل عملية إستعادة المعلومة

[anaZAAAAAD · Rating 4 out of 5]

أفكار لتنمية النفس و طريقة التفكير مهمة، بعد الأنتهاء من قراءة الكتااااب تتوافر طاقة أيجابية لصنع أشياء جديدة و الأكيد تنشأ عادات يومية نفسية أكثر أيجابية

[Ella (book.monkey) · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book wasn't by any means fantastic but was definitely interesting.

[فاطِمة]

عادي نفس كتاب القراءة السريعة !!

[Rafael Said · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony Buzan, considerado o inventor dos Mapas Mentais, ferramenta que ajuda no aprendizado, traz nesse livro os conceitos nos quais se baseou para criar essa ferramenta, e também dá dicas sobre métodos mais eficazes de estudo, que, segundo pesquisas realizadas por ele, aumentam o potencial do cérebro.
O autor cita a divisão entre os córtex direito e esquerdo do cérebro, ressaltando que quando se cria condições que estimulam ambos os córtex, o processo de memória e aprendizado se torna mais eficaz. Embora possa ser difícil começar a utilizar seus métodos, ele compara o processo de aprendizado a uma trilha aberta em uma floresta: “quanto mais vezes passamos pelo mesmo caminho, menos resistência encontraremos”. Ou seja, a repetição dos processos torna-os amigáveis. Para melhorar o processo de aprendizado, é necessário incorporar, além da repetição, sentido, ritmo e cores no processo.
O livro cita as diversas formas de inteligência, classificando-as em: “inteligência criativa, inteligência pessoal, inteligência social, inteligência espiritual, inteligência física e inteligência sensorial, assim como as inteligências ‘tradicionais’, como inteligência numérica, inteligência espacial e inteligência verbal”.
Aquilo que aprendemos inicialmente em um estudo, fica na mente por um período de um dia, antes de iniciar o processo de esquecimento. As técnicas de revisão, além da prática, ajudam a passar o conteúdo da memória de curto prazo para a memória de longo prazo.
Há muito mais a ser explorado no livro, como técnicas mnemônicas (que auxiliam na memorização) e técnicas de leitura dinâmica. Mas o autor cita o programa de aprendizado que criou, dividindo-o em duas partes: a primeira formada pelos passos de, navegação (passar pelo conteúdo para identificar como está exposto), tempo e quantidade (estabelecer o tempo e a quantidade de material a ser estudado), anotações (escrever o que já se sabe do tema, em cinco minutos), fazer perguntas e definir objetivos; a segunda parte do programa segue os seguintes passos: visualização geral (olhada geral no conteúdo), pré-visualização (leitura rápida de alguns trechos), visualização interna (leitura um pouco mais detalhada) e revisão (rever o conteúdo para fixar o aprendizado).
Para aqueles que estão em processo de aprendizado, independente de qual conteúdo se queira aprender, o livro é uma boa indicação para aumentar o potencial de aprendizado e retenção do que foi estudado.

[Sarah Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I initially read this book over 30 years ago, I was highly sceptical about many of the claims written in this book. I thought it has to be nonsense. So, I made the huge mistake of not applying his suggestions to my life, and I deeply regret it.

Well, a few years ago, I revisited this book again, with a very different attitude, and I can tell you everything in this book is very real, and can be applied to improve memory, studying techniques and so on.

This is an introduction to different areas of brain training. You can follow up with his other books, Master Your Memory, Use Your Memory and so on.

I actually used what was in the Buzan brain books to learn how to memorise a pack of cards in 3 minutes. It sharpened my memory.

Like many skills in life, don't read this book expecting over night transformation. It takes time and comes in stages with work. Persist and you will be able to do everything in this book.

Whether this book is good for you, will depend on if you actually bother using the contents by being active. If you simply expect better reading speed etc with no effort, then no this book will not be for you. If you have a teenager studying for exams get them to read this book around study techniques and mind mapping. It does work, and can take memory retention from 10% to 70% if you follow some simple review techniques. It really is not rocket science. It is often because kids just cannot be bothered to review that they end up having to do a heap of work later for tests and basically relearn almost everything when it could have been avoided. For the study skill advice alone, I would have given it 5 stars.

[Bikuta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting approach to one's capabilities in learning
I stumbled upon this book in my own venture into trying to understand how the human mind works at receiving information and this book gave me a pretty solid answer, although pretty bias in the sense of further promoting the "Mind Map" strategy but I don't mind since it is pretty effective.

This book offers very short introduction to many of the author's many other books, mainly The Speed Reading Book and Use Your Head which are also pretty good in my opinion. It shows you many techniques that can be tested on your daily reading/studying routine and it can probably make it more efficient! Although, I still have to test most of them.

Anyways, give this book a chance. It can maybe change your way of seeing information and how to keep it for later uses.

[Sajeda Yusuf · Rating 2 out of 5]

" ولا شك أنّ عدم مراجعة المواد المقروءة سابقًا تجعل من القارئ قارئً جديداً بشكل دائم لمواد متشابهة؛ إذ انه لم يستفد من الأفكار السابقة لمقارنتها بأفكار لاحقة والربط فيما بينها.
عملية الحفظ هي عملية قائمة على أساس الربط والمقارنة، وكلما كانت المعلومات المختزنة قليلة كانت الإمكانية قليلة لتخزين معلومات جديدة، إن هذه العملية تشبه إلى حدٍ ما كرة الثلج التي تزداد حجمًا كلما تدحرجت والتي بالتالي تستمر بالتدحرج كلما ازداد حجمها بفضل امتلاكها لقوة ذاتية دافعة. "

في أثناء القراءة وخلال المرور على الأسطر :
" يمكن تقليص عمليات العودة إلى الوراء إذ إن ٩٠٪ منها قائمة على الخوف كما أنها ليست ضرورية للفهم "

" إن الشروع في قراءة كتاب دراسي ضخم من دون تخطيط سوف يكون ولا شك هاجسًا دائم المثول أمام القارئ طيلة فترة القراءة.
أما إذا اختار القارئ عددًا مناسبًا من الصفحات لقراءتها في وقت محدد فإنه يزيل بذلك هاجس الخوف لأنه يعلم بكل التفاصيل فهو الذي اختار وحدد وهو قبل كل شيء متأكد من أنه قادر على إكمال ما حدد خلال الوقت المعلوم. "

[Vipul Dhotre · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not a book to be rated to be honest.

I'll recommend this book if you want to improve your READING SKILLS, MEMORY and LEARNING habits and are looking somewhere to begin with.

Use your head,
brags about the immense potential of a human brain and encourages us to understand its working to effectively harness its true power.
It discusses about SPEED READING, MEMORY (how it’s different from understanding),
EFFECTIVE STUDYING TECHNIQUE and MIND MAPS briefly on skin but does enough to motivate us to dig deeper.

Also, after reading this book you can go for other books from the author. He has several books for different individual goals (ex. 'USE YOUR MEMORY' for MEMORY ENHANCING TECHNIQUES) where he dives much deeper in that specific topic to produce better understanding for practical usage.

[Abderrahman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A très jeune âge on apprend grâce à notre petite expérience avec les épreuves scolaires comment mieux rendre ce qu'on nous a réciter pour avoir une bonne note. Mais jamais on a eu une matière spéciale pour savoir comment bien utiliser nos cerveaux.. comment bien analyser et savoir mémoriser ce qui est utile et important. Plein de désespoir qui nous fait perdre confiance à nos neurones. Ce livre essai de démontrer que ces derniers n'ont pas de limite. Et propose en même temps une nouvelle méthode d'apprentissage. Je recommande fortement ce livre pour se reconcilier avec nos têtes. Personnellement je commence à apprendre ces techniques à mes petits..

[Jackson Zheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book left on the school bus and decided to take it home. 1 month later I got bored and decided to start reading it with a high skepticism.
Next moment, my mind was blew open!

This book literally opened my eyes to how we can hack our brains to remember information like never before!

This was literally the turning point of my life.

By the way, the author of this book was the inventor of the mind map.